Yao Ming retires

    Yao Ming made it official last Wednesday, telling a packed news conference in his hometown Shanghai that a series of injuries have forced him to retire from basketball.

    The Houston Rockets center, who has become a household name in China and one of the stars of the NBA since his breakthrough as the top draft pick in 2002, confirmed weeks of speculation about his retirement by stating: “I will formally end my career.”

    Wenzhou train crash

    Thirty-nine people, including two American citizens, have been killed and another 206 injured after a high-speed train smashed into another train late Saturday in Zhejiang Province.

    The accident occurred at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday on a viaduct* near Wenzhou City when bullet train D301 smashed into the rear of D3115. An initial investigation showed that train D3115 lost power and stalled* after being struck by lightning.

    Three railway officials were sacked on Sunday, the Ministry of Railway said.

    Fugitive Lai arrested

    China’s most-wanted fugitive was arrested on Saturday after being returned to China from Canada, where he had lived for 12 years.

    Lai Changxing, the chief suspect in a smuggling operation in Xiamen, Fujian Province, involving an estimated 50 billion yuan (US$7.6 billion), was escorted* by two Chinese police officers as he left an Air Canada plane that arrived in Beijing at 4.32 p.m.

    41 dead in bus fire

    Forty-one people died and six others were injured when an overloaded bus caught fire in Xinyang City, Henan Province, early Friday. It was the deadliest bus accident in the country in recent years.

    A total of 47 people were on board when the 35-seat bus caught fire at 4 a.m. on the Henan section of the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway. The cause of the blaze is still being investigated.

    (SD-Agencies)